


Sacrifices

by firelordizumi



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: F/M, Reunited and It Feels So Good
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-18
Updated: 2015-02-18
Packaged: 2018-03-13 22:25:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 839
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3398447
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/firelordizumi/pseuds/firelordizumi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A quick oneshot written for Sexy Maiko Week 2015 on tumblr (The title is also the prompt for that day). Zuko returns home after a long trip and things start happening.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sacrifices

There is some ceremony to his return; most things in their lives require it, after all.

Mai is already waiting when the palanquin passes through the palace gates. She stands at the bottom of the flight of steps leading to the gilded doorway, all but gliding toward him across the courtyard with all the dignity and poise befitting her position. “Welcome home,” she says when they meet, smiling slightly as she stands on tiptoe to take his face in her hands and kiss his scarred cheek. 

Zuko wonders if it all seems completely innocuous to the various bystanders, the guards that line the walkway, the handful of reporters assigned to cover such goings on (although Zuko can’t for the life of him imagine what is so newsworthy about getting off an airship, but he has been told the people are interested in this sort of thing and it seems harmless enough). From an outsider’s perspective, he imagines Mai’s greeting looks mannered, unremarkable, an affectionate gesture, yes, but a practiced one that says more about the setting of their reunion than anything else.

Zuko, on the other hand, can see it differently. He can tell from the way she holds his gaze a fraction of a second longer than necessary as the faintest of flushes spreads across her cheeks, the way her fingers twitch when he slips an arm around her waist to escort her inside. He’s known her intimately for years now; he can recognize the signs. She wants him. And Agni knows the ocean separating them as of late has made him want her too.

Once the doors are shut behind them, Zuko dismisses the remainder of the attendants with a nod and a wave of his hand, and he and Mai resume walking, their pace slowed only for a moment when she gently elbows him in the ribs.

“Don’t look so smug,” she hisses, smirking at him as she looks up through her lashes.

He laughs and urges her onward, but soon stops in his tracks when he realizes that the usual traffic in the hallway has thinned to the point where it now stands completely deserted.

In a single, charged, instant, their eyes meet and the tension that’s been building between them finally breaks. He can’t be entirely sure who pulls who behind the nearest pillar, but at last she’s kissing him again, every movement of her mouth insistent and hungry. He returns them all in kind, the sensations created by the weight of her in his arms and her soft lips on his somehow still both comfortingly familiar and enticingly new. He is home again.

Three weeks is an eternity, he thinks, the mere image of his wife never enough to sustain him through the endless meetings and nights in empty beds. They both knew it would be like this sometimes, duty demands sacrifice, but it’s torture being away from her, torture to be with her now, yet unable to see, to taste, to feel all of her. Her fingers twine through his hair and he grasps at the thick fabric covering the small of her back, every inch of him aching for contact with the skin beneath.

It takes every ounce of willpower he has to move away, his protestation of “I have appointments” managing to sound even more feeble as she closes the space between them, rolling her hips against the mounting heat between his legs.

Mai turns her head in an effort to accommodate him as he begins leaving a trail of kisses up her jawline. “Someone figured out those appointments were non-essential and cleared your schedule for the afternoon.” 

“Someone? I should find a way to thank her,” he breathes against her neck. 

“You really should.” A small moan escapes her lips as his mouth finds the sensitive spot behind her earlobe.

The next few minutes pass in a haze as he leads her by the wrist toward the privacy of their apartments, his other hand holding onto his topknot to keep his crown from falling off. Before long, however, it lies discarded somewhere in the tangled heap of robes on their bedroom floor. His legs hang off the edge of their bed as she sits astride him, and it’s only when her hands dance down his bare chest to tease beneath the waistband of his trousers when he realizes how close he is already, that the distance has made it like he’s sixteen again. With a jolt of alarm, he props himself up on his elbows.

 “Mai, stop,” he gasps. “Wait.”

“Miss me?” Her expression is one of mild curiosity, but the afternoon sunlight streaming through the windows illuminates the mischievous glint in her eyes. “Show me how much, then,” she says, rolling off of him onto her back and spreading her legs to rest her feet on the edge of the mattress.

Zuko sinks onto the floor to kneel before her and removes the last of her wrappings, only too eager to oblige. “As my lady wishes,” he murmurs.

**Author's Note:**

> This was out of the ordinary for me, but I decided I needed a challenge. Plus this pairing can always use some more love.


End file.
